Prevention of revenue losses in public gaming due to errors, mistakes and dishonesty is a major concern among the operators of gaming parlors and the governments who tax the games. For example, in one gaming system the government issues gaming cards for use in bingo or lotto or similar games which cards have various face values. Parlor owners buy these cards at a discount from their face value and then resell them at face value at the gaming parlors. This requires large capital outlay in advance by the parlor owners and also places the burden of lost, destroyed or damaged cards on the parlor owners. The parlor owners may also suffer losses when a player buys more than one card at a time and then turns in only the one that wins and uses the remaining cards for subsequent games. Cheating also occurs when the numbers or other indicia on the card face are covered over with other numbers or indicia or otherwise changed to make the card a bogus winner. In systems where the cards are not sold at face value the government must obtain its tax revenue based on a percentage of the value actually paid for the cards at the parlor. Thus if parlor owners or employees "skim" or do not accurately report all card receipts and winner payouts the government stands to lose.